Peloton Magazine
Creative Director/Photo Editor: Tim Schamber
Photographer: Paolo Ciaberta
Heidi: How did the project come about and is this the first time you’ve worked with Peloton?
Paolo: My first collaboration with Peloton was in 2014, I proposed a reportage about the cycling path from Venice to Turin along the Po river. The Morocco trip my friends and I were looking for a ride in an exotic place but not too far from Italy where I’m based so it was a perfect opportunity.
How long did the trip take?
Due to work commitments we decided on 7 days for the entire trip. One day of transportations and six days to ride. Average 80-90km/day, not too much because we don’t want to only pedal but also discover people and places.
Do you often ride, write and shoot?
While I wrote the article, I’m not a proper writer but in this instance I tried to communicate my experiences and sensations, in addition to some technical details. For longer and more articulated articles I prefer to work with professional writers.
How difficult was the photo edit and approx how many images did you take?
More or less 600 images for the entire trip. There are two different aspects that I consider while editing. First is selection of the images and second the post-production; I don’t like too much elaboration on my pictures. I make little adjustment of levels, lights, shadows and contrast. I think that photo reportage should be real as possible, too much editing makes images artificial or constructed. The trick is to find the right balance and choose the photos that best describe your work
Was it difficult to protect your gear from the travel/weather?
After years of experience I’ve achieved a good level of protetcion for my equipment, Olympus Italia provided me an excellent mirrorless camera (Pen F) that is easy to transport due to its small size but also resistant to bad weather. Basically the biggest problems during bike packing trips could be dust, rain, condensation and vibrations. Rain in Morocco is rare but dust and condensation could happen, a good plastic bag with smaller little salt bags solve the problem and you can go everywhere. Furthermore I use little stripes of foam rubber to avoid the vibrations when the camera is in the bags.